General Medical Question - Non Urgent - Pain in foot

[Intaytia]

Hey there :)

I have tried to find an answer for this on Google, but it doesn't seem to be able to help me that much.

Basically:
I've got a pain on the topside of my foot, just before the toes, between middle toe and little one.. Like, the bones before they stem off to each toe. Is there any home treatment I can do?

I'm currently in France until September, and don't fancy going to a doctor out here. It's not swollen, but I'm putting cold drinks/ice on it anyway. It's painful to walk on it.

Background:
Over a month ago, I had my big toenail removed, and whilst it was healing, I found myself walking, making the big toe more elevated, so I guess I strained muscle or something further down my foot. After rest, it went away, but recently it's come back and it's been about a week now and it won't go.

Thanks in advance

[Animad]

RICE is the best approach which is;
Rest; Don't walk around if you don't have to but if you are going to walk then walk normally as walking abnormally can cause you further problems, not only in your foot but further up your leg, in your hip/ pelvis or even your spine.

Ice; Apply this with a damp towel between the ice and your skin for a maximum of 10mins an hour. That should help to numb the pain and also take some swelling down.

Compression; Keep a bandage on it. If they have them in France you could use a tubigrip (tubular bandage) over the foot. Otherwise just normal bandage or an ACE Wrap, if they have those, around the area not really tight but at the same time not really loose, just to protect the area, reduce the stress on any one bit as much as possible and try and reduce the swelling. Remove ACEWraps/ Tubigrips at night. If wearing a bandage on the foot and your toes swell, become numb or have pins and needles in them or they become darker in colour then remove it or loosen it straight away.

Elevation; Try to keep your foot higher than your hip (or as close as possible) as much as you can.

Other than that you can also use painkillers so long as there is no medical reason and you're not on any medication which would stop you from being able to use them. The best one for this would probably be Ibuprofen and take this as said on the leaflet (make sure you read this even if you're used to taking them as in mainland Europe they can be stronger than in some other places such as the UK) and check this also to make sure there are no reasons why you shouldn't as well as how to take them (in the case of Ibuprofen this should be with food). You could also take Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) again as said on the leaflet and checking on this that there are no reasons why not. The two can be taken together.

If your problems aren't getting better over the next couple of days or are getting worse you need to get it checked out ASAP as there is always the chance that you have a fracture there and even pulled muscles or sprains can put more tension on bones and can cause them to break (which is potentially more likely in some of the small bones in such as the foot).

[Intaytia]

Thanks very much, I'm going to the pharmacy later, and will buy a bandage and see what the pharmacist says. Do you think some muscle cream would help? But then again, I guess I don't know if it's a muscle problem.

I'm going to be double checking everything I take to make sure they're no aspirin in it, as it can't be taken with my medication.

I will let you know what happens later :)

[Intaytia]

Been to the pharmacy, he's given me Nurofen gel and paracetamol. My foot isn't swollen or inflammed, so wondering why I've got anti-inflamatory stuff...

[Animad]

Anti-inflammatories work for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is likely to be inflammation on the inside of your foot and this is one of the things causing the pain but it may not necessarily be seen on the outside. These will hopefully take this down and stop reduce the pain. Secondly, anti-inflammatories do actually reduce the sensitivity of the nerves and so reduce the pain that way. So yep, the area doesn't have to be extremely inflamed or appear swollen on the surface to make a difference.

[Intaytia]

*Fingers crossed it works then!* Will update in a few days to let you know how it's going.